Ascendant: A Progression Fantasy

Ascendant, Book 1

By: EmergencyComplaints

Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn

Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The world's most powerful ascendant is transformed into his younger self—with no memory of who he truly is—and must harness his forgotten skills to survive.

While celebrating his latest victory, Exarch Niramyn carelessly lets his guard down. Seeing his chance, the mighty Myzalik—Nym's rival of a thousand years—casts a spell that sends him back to adolescence, with no idea who he really is or how he came to be washed up on the beach of Bloodfin Cove. Fortunately, the kindly Ciana comes along and saves him. But she quickly realizes he's no ordinary child. For one thing, he has magical abilities she's never seen in someone so young. And for another, he can fly.

Of course, not everyone welcomes Nym with open arms. When he kills a man who threatens him and Ciana, he's forced to flee into the woods lest anyone should seek vengeance. Winding up in the town of Zoskan, he starts working for Cern the alchemist, and soon his unusual gifts are noted at the local mage's guildhall, his raw power and magical acumen clearly well beyond his years. His training thus begins in earnest, and before he knows it, he's looking for a way to attend the school of magic known as the Academy.

But how to afford the tuition? When a local thief blackmails him into breaking into the home of a wealthy noble family, Nym seizes the opportunity to ally himself with them instead. However, his old crime is sure to catch up with him eventually, and he still hasn't discovered who he really is or why he can do what he can do. Will Nym ever regain his lost talents—or will he be stuck in the form of a mageling forever?

The first volume of the hit progression-fantasy series—with more than a million views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 David Sherman (P)2024 Podium Audio

Two steps forward. Two steps back.

Firstly, I’d like to say that this was a really good book. I liked the characters, I liked the premise, and I liked the magic mechanics.

However, my one and only gripe about this book is that it was kind of exhausting to listen to. At no point throughout the book does the MC stay in any given place for more than a couple months. He is constantly on the move due to events and paranoias. Every instance the MC is given to get his feet under him, is taken away or turned down. He tries to seek new opportunities to gain knowledge of magic and hopefully his memories and just gets brick walled. Every. Time. Everything he learns is all thanks to kind individuals and his previous self.

I just personally found it frustrating because it never felt like the MC could just take a breath.

I really hope in the next book it gets better in that regard, but I still enjoyed this book so I give it a thumbs up.

Pretty Solid Book

When I found this title, it didn’t have any reviews on audible or amazon so I decided to take a chance on it and I’m glad I did, it’s a fun story. What I find the weakest part of this book is the blurb, its kind of a synopsis of the first few hours of the book and not really what to expect from the story.

We follow Nym as he travels across the world, interacting with new and interesting people, monsters, and places while he tries to regain his memories of who he is and where he’s from. This reads more like a traditional coming of age adventure fantasy with some progression in the form of stages of magic and some other tropes of the genre. If you are looking for a magic academy read, this is not that, at least within this book.

Nym’s character is what you'd expect from god-like being who’s been reverted back to a child and lost his memory; ambitious, cocky (almost borderline arrogant) and in some cases petty, but likeable, like that mischievous younger brother who’s always causing trouble for himself, you can’t help but laugh at his antics.

Narration isn’t too bad, sometimes it feels like the pacing is a bit too fast or in some instances a long run on sentence. Male and female voices done well and each character sounds different.

Overall a solid fantasy adventure, look forward to more.

Really good😁

enjoyed it immensely, can't wait for the next book in the series but until it comes out, I'm going to go get one of his other books. fingers and toes crossed that they are just as good!! Narration was flawless, amazing job on the voice actors part. Thank y'all

First audio book.

I really enjoyed it. Had to get used to the "female" voices, but in the end really got into the story. Can't wait for the second one.

Excellent

A great audiobook. It was compelling and engaging all the way through. This is one of those rare gems that doesn’t even leave room for constructive criticism.

Spend your credit with confidence.

Wow!

If you want to lose sleep listen to this book! Took a chance and loved it! Story and narration are superb!! Looking forward to the next book!

I was happy with the whole thing.

NOT a bot review. If your hesitant to spend a credit on an unknown I say to you all this book was surprisingly good. Finished it in one session, which for mediocre books I can never do. The Mc has memory problems and is sometimes stupid but it's pretty understandable given his.. condition. I genuinely enjoyed this book, good narrator as well. Good all around.